GREEN

today, again shockingly enough was another fabulous day and honestly this far, my favorite. we woke up early and set out for a road trip to the lake. we got to see so many awesome things that we would never have been able to see if Dima hadn't let us take his car (SO generous) him and his family came with us and he was our navigator so we got to listen to the european radio. lotsss of techno, songs of weird being singing in different languages and american top 40.... it was so much fun. it was exactly as you see in movies, pictures ect of eastern europe. so green, lush, beautiful orchards, and adorable villages. i now like to think that one day my husband and i will be able to retire to a beautiful place like this to live. actually, it would be so fun to raise kids in a place like that to so maybe i will just move here forever.... (dont worry mom and dad, i need more money first, so i will be returning home for a quick minute for a visit, make money and back to lithuania i come hahah ) anyways we made many pit stops along the way. this was a national forest that we drove through so it was beautiful the entire way. (below you will see a picture of our route).... enjoy :)

this is the typical european cemetery garden. they plant foliage there instead of putting vases and freshly cut flowers on graves. it was soooo beautiful! if/when i die, do something like this for me okay?

this was a husband and wife's grave. they planted these trees when they passed away like 100 years agao and they have grown together at the top. it was so cool and very romantic!

another pit stop...and another catholic church.
 these were beautiful mirror lakes in the middle of these amazing lush fields. so breathtaking! 

big-ole sunflower

so i saw this sunflower and it made me think of cade (shocker) and one of his pictures from texas he had sent me. so i decided to take one like it and sent it to him as a TWINNERS picture... im sure he wont think i am as funny as i think i am but hey, i can dream right?! 

pretty driving scenery!

this was our route we took. you cant see if very well but we drove where the red lights are. we did a big circle. it took from about 9am to about 7pm. SO worth it.....

 

my dinner and a dessert we all shared. i was in heaven that i could finally have chicken and it was cooked to perfection. also we had a pastry stuffed with nuttella and ice cream. i could have eaten it 20 times over again. it was so amazingly good!

more of us driving. its sad because these picture dont nearly do it justice of how beautiful and green it was....

mushrooms! in these forests we saw at least like 10-15 people throughout just picking mushrooms for sale and they were GIGANTIC!!!!!!!!!!! dima told us to never buy them from any markets or anywhere other then the grocery store because so many people die here every year because people accidentally pick poisonous ones and so people buy them and pass away.... crazy huh!?

i caught a frog!!!

me and cute jen! :)

a water closet (restroom) that i had to use. we went to this bed and breakfast because we all had to go and they told us it was around back.... yeah... so far away and not even connected to the building it was so funny but super small and stinky. it might as well have been an outhouse. it did the job well though haha

teaching and raining

(sorry in advance for the overload of pictures on this post!!)

also, sorry everyone i havent blogged the past few days because i have been super lazy and just not wanting to write much but here i am, on a friday night at 11:35 pm with nada to do! (minus skyping my bffffff :) anyways..... so we started teaching monday.. so fun, hard, tiring, frustrating, time intensive, most AWESOME thing ever. it really has been everything all in one for me. i havent ever taught anything before. its more strenuous emotionally/mentally then i had thought it was going to be. it has went pretty well though! the kids are so adorable and fun to be with. i already think it would be so hard to pick up and leave back to america and its only been 1 week.... imagine how i will feel in 17 weeks. i cant believe it!  anyways here are some pictures i got the past week.... more to come throughout my stay here i am sure!

these kids are the ages of 5-6. so much fun! from left to right is Ignas, Nikol, Ema, Daniel, and Stefania 

I love Ignas! he kills me!

this is Artur and Z. i have a special place in my heart for Artur, can you blame me though? look at his mischevious smile! Z on the other hand.... is a handful! i love him so much and he says the funniest things. you know when little kids talk and its like they are an old man with the propper-ness (not a word i know, but you get the jist of it) but the fanciness of the way they try and speak? yeah thats him. hes pretty fluent in english too so we have funny conversations.....

this is me and Dora, shes 8

ohhh Danielas. so hilarious. he doesnt speak much really but he is such a spaz and makes me laugh

oh and Sylvia..... shes INSANE. so crazy, off the wall, never listens but she makes us all laugh. shes about 3-4 i think and shes pretty good with her english as well. as you can see... she took a chunk out of her bangs. (dont worry it didnt happen at school that we know of........)

these are pictures that jen (head teacher) got of my class today! these kids that i was teaching are ages 8-9

ignas, nikol and stefania again!

we walk everywhere basically, but thats only because where we eat our food is next door to our apartments (on the same block) and the school we teach at is across the street. its really nice to get fresh air and walk everywhere. but.... since the weather is so temperamental here, its hard to say what will be going on with the weather throughout the day. its the rain season now in lithuania, so is rains everyday and HARD. but then sometimes/most of the time it gets really sunny and hot, and then cloudy and then sunny..... good grief. but luckily i have a nice slicker and rainboots with me while i am here. these pictures are from our walk to school on wednesday. it was POURING!!!!

i forgot my umbrella at home (durrr.....) and holly was nice enough to share hers with me!

well, thats about all for now on this wonderful friday night. tomorrow we are leaving early in the morning to a wonderful lake adventure and i am sure there will be multiple things to write about and pictures to explain. enjoy your friday/saturday everybody :)

whats in a name?

Стиви 

is my name in Russian, cool huh!?
Dima will be giving us Russian classes two times a week while we live here. its been way interesting and overwhelming but i love it!

castles, church and kibinas

 church was so amazing today. i haven't felt the spirit this strongly in a while. i can’t believe with how different everything was, how at home i felt when i walked into the doors. right when we walked in we were greeted by the branch president and asked to go up and bear our testimonies... sweet. hahahah but we did it anyways  and it felt so good. all of the members were so kind to us and i am so happy to be here! it was so cool. the missionaries translated the whole meeting for us which was super cool. i love it.

the church is true, even in lith!

cutest girl ever! her names marta

we got to go to a sweet castle today and see around and inside of the courtyard thing. it was soo cool. we also went sailing around the lake that surrounds the island that it was on. it was seriously UNREAL! here are a million pictures from it. 

playing with Dimas daughters nicole and Sophia while we were waiting for the "adults" to get  gas. phoeey on growing up

jen and i

my duck waterproof shoes are swweeettttt

standing where the moat used to be. so cool!

trakai castle. the cool thing about this castle is all original. it hasnt been renovated or anything. soooo cool!

the boat we went sailing on!

our sweeeeet captain

reading with nicole

so pretty

after we went to dinner and has these delicious kibinas. which is like a stuffed pastry! it was sooo delicious! i got a chicken stuffed one (typical) and it was soooo delicious! after jaclyn and i ate a dessert one that was filled with hazelnut chocolate. you guys, i dont think you understand how delicious and how much better the chocolate is here. SO DANG GOOD. it melts when you are taking off the wrapper if you can even imagine... anyways on the way there and home we saw the most beautiful scenery. 

 these pictures are for all of you people who thought lithuania was going to be the most dreary place in all of everywhere! so a big HA to you all!

old town

today we went into downtown vilinus. it was so beautiful! there was so much to see...

me enjoying yummy hibiscus tea here in lith

jaclyn and myself waiting for Dima to come pick us up!

in front of a catholic church, they have this stone/tile thing and you are supposed to stand on it and make a wish

inside of a catholic church, BEAUITFUL!

this place that has amazing food for only 7lt. aka 3 bucks

SO DELICIOUS!

me in our kicthen on the computer

 jen and i